Trial launched for new kidney-cancer vaccine.

2004 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Merix Bioscience, a company pioneering therapeutic cancer vaccines, announced its first corporate-sponsored clinical trial, a trial with potential significant impact on the future treatment of kidney (renal) cancer.

The trial for an RNA-loaded autologous dendritic cell vaccine is now in phase I/II study at five clinical sites in the United States and Canada.

"We have developed a cancer vaccine that harnesses the ability of an individual's immune system to fight disease," said Clint G. (Skip) Dederick, Jr., chairman, president and CEO of Merix. "We strongly believe that by utilizing an individual patient's tumor antigens to create a personalized vaccine, we can induce the broadest possible immune response and maximize the antitumor responses."

The Merix trial focuses on patients newly diagnosed with metastatic renal cell cancer. Dr. Fred Miesowicz, acting head of clinical development at Merix, explained that because the vaccine is composed of dendritic cells taken from the patient's body and infused with amplified RNA from the patient's tumor, the RNA-loaded dendritic cell vaccine is personalized for each patient's specific cancer and primes the patient's immune system to recognize and fight the cancer utilizing the full arsenal of tumor-specific targets.

Additionally, Miesowicz said the study will address feasibility issues: "Another study objective includes demonstrating the safety and commercial feasibility of processing dendritic cells at a central manufacturing facility with delivery of the vaccine to multiple clinical sites."

Given the predominance of cancer in the United States, trial investigators are excited by the potential ramifications of such a vaccine's development.

"Next to heart disease, cancer is the leading cause of death in the United States," said Michael Wong, MD, PhD, FRCPC, medical director of clinical drug development at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, one of the trial sites and one of the nation's leading cancer treatment centers. "For the more than 30,000 people diagnosed with renal cancer each year, the goal of clinical trials, such as this ...